A double contrast examination is one in which the wall of the bowel is lined with radiopaque material while the lumen is filled with radiolucent material, so enabling the radiologist to more clearly visualise the surface conditions of each wall. A double contrast study differs from a single constrast study in which the bowel is filled with radiopaque media and in which substantially only the bowel silhouette is rendered visible.
Hitherto attempts to achieve a double contrast study have involved infusing a relatively small quantity of radiopaque media into the duodenum for onward transmission into the small bowel immediately followed by the infusion of a large volume of water or aqueous solution intended to flush the radiopaque material through the bowel while distending the bowel. This technique has severe limitations because the radiopaque material rapidly becomes dispersed in the radiolucent aqueous material and thus in practice the only area available for double contrast examination, and then only briefly, is at the downstream front of the moving aqueous component.
With the foregoing in mind, the present invention was devised to provide a better medium for double contrast radiographic study, by enteroclysis, of the small bowel and which overcomes or at least ameliorates the deficiencies of the prior known media.